Portugal Telecom Capex up 17.7 percent to €310 million in Q2 2013

August 14, 2013

Portugal Telecom Capex (capital expenditure) increased 17.7 percent to €309.7 million in the second quarter of 2013.

In Q2 2013, Capex to revenue was 20.1 percent against 16.2 percent in Q2 2012.

In the first half of 2013, Capex reached €596 million or 19.3 percent of revenues.

Oi invested €124 million in 3G coverage and capacity, in the initial rollout of the 4G-LTE network and in IT services, mainly related to system updates and upgrades.

Capex at Portuguese telecommunications businesses declined 4.4 percent to €228 million in H1. This is despite the investments in the roll out of the data center in Covilha, which will be inaugurated on 23 September 2013.

Capex from other businesses decreased 10.4 percent €59 million in H1, reflecting mainly the impact of the depreciation of the Brazilian Real and Namibian Dollar against the Euro (Euro 5 million) and also lower capex at CVT and CST, following the investments realised in 2012 in the rollout of the submarine cable.

Capex of Portuguese telecommunications businesses increased 4.3 percent to €129 million in Q2. In 2012, it made strong investments in both FTTH and 4G-LTE networks.

In Q2, Portuguese telecommunications invested in IT/IS projects, which represented 28 percent of total capex in Q2; customer capex of €46 million and technology and infrastructure capex of €45 million.

These investments have translated into PT’s leadership in FTTH and 4G-LTE coverage in Portugal, where PT already covers 1.6 million households with FTTH and 92 percent of the population with 4G-LTE allowing speeds of up to 150 Mbps.

PT is testing LTE-Advanced and has already achieved speeds of 300Mbps, preparing the evolution of its 4G LTE offer.